In the two final decades of the nineteenth century, Spain introduced a number of measures promoting Spanish economic interests in the Philippines which culminated in a protectionist tariff established in 1891. As a consequence, Spain's trade with the archipelago rose unprecedentedly, particularly evident in the import of textiles and other manufactured goods. Through their neo-mercantilist policies, ‘the Spanish were able to recover something of their former economic position in their own colony’, that they in the course of the nineteenth century had lost to foreign, particularly British, competitors.